My dad was a truck driver in Brooklyn, NY. I often rode with him and watched how he did his job. He did moving jobs on the side and when I was older, I followed along with him to earn some extra money working on his crews. I guess it was in my genes from my old man because I went on to get my commercial license and passed the test to drive a rig.

I’ve been with Suddath since 1997, first doing household moves, then commercial. I liked household, but I like commercial a lot more. I just find it more interesting and challenging. Office moves, trade shows, each one is so different. I also do cubicle installations.

I was the warehouse manager here at Suddath for a while, too. But I missed hearing what was going on out on the road. I came back to driving again and I dived in right away.

We just finished the move for the GOP primary elections here in Florida. It’s a four-day job start to finish. We load and unload the equipment at the voting sites. An electrician hired by the people in charge of the voting is there to hook up the computer equipment. After the polls close, voting agencies bring us the ballots. Then we’re escorted by police to the site where the votes are counted. We loaded 28 trucks with voting equipment, each truck delivering to 9-12 sites. We deliver to about 100 voting places in all. This is my ninth year of doing this job for every election inFlorida. I’m sure the average voter never thinks about how those booths get there.

Fredo P., Suddath

In this job, the right attitude makes a huge difference. I believe you should walk in the house with a great attitude and leave your personal problems on the truck. You can deal with the personal stuff later.

Having my own crew has also worked very well for me when it comes to ways of making the move go well. Many of my crew members have been with me for 10 or 15 years. Most long distance guys don’t haul with their crews. But I do mostly local and regional household moves. For local moves you’re expected to bring at least one person with you. I usually bring two or three along. I believe my steady crews are a big reason why I never have any issues with claims. I now have a lot of repeat business, too. I often move pro basketball players, bank presidents, and CEOs with 30,000 lbs. hauls.

Some guys who move coast to coast rely on a comfortable truck they can live in and feel very comfortable. They believe their truck helps them make the move go better and maybe it does. I mostly drive a 500 mile radius so my truck isn’t as important. I own a 2000 International, it performs well, and I want to drive it until the wheels fall off. My truck is very clean and presentable and I make sure it is, but I’m not like some guys who dote on their trucks. I think it’s better to dote on my wife.

Michael P., Suddath

My advice to make the move go smoother is to keep a positive attitude. Just try to get the customer to relax. People can be really uptight about moving and not everyone is moving for happy reasons.

The customer might be moving because of a job relocation. They’re naturally under stress because the company told them they have to move to keep their job. Their boss might be giving them only 60 days notice to move their family across the country. That can put people on edge before they even start packing.

When you think about it, you’re walking up to these people’s houses and they’ve never seen you before in their life. Now you’re responsible for protecting everything they own. Maybe their neighbor told them about a bad move they had. Plus, the person’s company most likely hired you, not the customer, so that can add to the tension. After about an hour of being with them and explaining things, you can get them to feel a lot more comfortable. Inexperience can make a customer feel anxious and I don’t blame them. I’d feel the same if a first time mover showed up at my house. I explain my years of experience. Some will say, “Well, if you’ve been around that long, you must know what you’re doing.” Crews might not have much experience, though, and are often still being trained. That can be a challenge if they’re asked about their experience. I coach my crew to say, “I’ve been with the company for a while.”

To protect myself from claims, I take the time needed during inventory to make careful notes on every item regarding existing scratches or damage. It can take four or five hours to do but it’s worth it. If I have the time and the customer is agreeable to it, I like to come a day ahead of the move and do inventory so that inventory won’t be rushed and moving day goes faster.

Brady B. Suddath

 I do nationwide household moves. Having the right equipment and working with experienced crews makes all the difference because if you don’t do it right, you’re buying it. When you get a challenging move with a heavy, high value load, you don’t want to work with a bunch of rookies. Be clear with the agent where you’re getting your help that you need the best crew you can get.

I also take pictures from my cell phone of a lot of the things I do to protect the house and the pieces we move. That way I have a photo catalog I can fall back on in case someone comes back with a complaint. I label all the pictures and include order numbers and dates. I don’t always do that, but if I walk into a home and the first words out of the customer’s mouth are, “I’m really worried about my floors,” I’ll have the guys take their shoes off, we cover the whole floor and I’ll take pictures. I might not even use dollies on certain floors because of the weight. For example, if they have a marble or slate floor, the weight of a loaded dolly could crack it if there’s any air space between the tile and the foundation. I’ll ask if there’s another way in or out of the house and try to use the dollies elsewhere.

Pictures can also help prove a situation of equipment failure. Let’s say I loaded a vehicle and the strap broke and the vehicle was damaged. A photo will prove that I did everything I could but it was equipment failure that caused the damage. That protects me from a claim because if I do everything I can and my equipment fails, I won’t be held responsible.

Wade M., Barrett Van Operator

A few years ago, I had a move that was going to keep me inLos Angeles over Christmas. Barrett offered to fly me home and back so I could be with my family for Christmas day, but with the kind of schedule I was on, it was just too tight. Barrett called another driver, Mike, who lived in the LA area and asked him if he’d invite me over for Christmas dinner. I knew him a little bit and I thought it was nice of Barrett to do that so I agreed.

Mike’s son picked me up at 6:00 in the morning and when we got to the house, Mike was already cooking. It turns out he’s pretty well known for his cooking. He was cooking dinner for his parents and family as well as for his parent’s friends who lived in the same retirement community. We spent the day out in his backyard roasting turkeys, pheasants, and ducks. By the time we ate that night, we were pretty hungry and tired of looking at birds. It was a pretty intense day. He didn’t put me to work, though. I don’t think he wanted me to mess with his food.

I assumed I was going over there to spend the day and maybe watch a little football. We did that and so much more. He was such a generous guy, all around. They even insisted that I spend the night there. The whole experience was a lot of fun.

Rich R., Barrett

Over the years, certain customers do stand out. Celebrities are memorable for several reasons. I’ve moved Ken Griffey Jr. and his family twice. On the second move, I told Ken Griffey that his new home was a walk-in Wal-Mart because he had an elevator that went up four floors. I remember they wanted their piano moved to one of the upper floors. We had to take it off the piano board to get it on the elevator but we managed to move it without hurting the piano or ourselves.

Moving famous people is always interesting. I’ve moved John Glenn twice. I moved both Shaquille O’Neal and Ken Griffey Jr. from a big house to a bigger house. It’s not hard to figure out why. I’ve always found customers who are famous to be nice and friendly, whether they’re actors, wrestlers, or other celebrities. Some of them are quite interesting, too.

Little kids from just about any family are memorable, too. They’ll often ask questions about how to pack, or where I live or sleep and so on. If they’re a little bit in the way, I’ll give them white packing paper and some crayons and they’ll settle down. Once everything is moved into the new place and the parents want to remove the labels from the boxes, I suggest letting the kids collect them and then giving them a reward at the end of the day for how many they have. I’ve had many nice remarks made about that on customer surveys.

Mike B., Suddath

Moving is very stressful for people. But if you can eliminate that stress right from the start, you’ll have a smoother move. People are more relaxed, the tension and second guessing are gone, and they’re ready to let you take all their worldly possessions.

Years ago, I moved the president of a national bank and his wife. I walked in the house and she was bawling her eyes out. She was upset because it was such a traumatic move. I shook her hand and held it and just let her know that I was going to take care of the move. By the time I got her settled down, she was ecstatic about the move. Since then, I’ve moved her and her family several times. When we moved them from Arizona to Minneapolis, she owned custom-made pieces designed for theArizona home that had high, vaulted ceilings. When we got toMinneapolis and I saw the new house, I told her that her wall unit cabinet system couldn’t fit up the stairs. She said we had to try. Fortunately, their next door neighbor had hired the same builder my customer used and his crew was working that day. The contractor said, “I’ll have my guys come and help you.” They looked at the situation and one of the foremen said, “Let’s just pop out that window on the third floor, we’ll get our forklift, and get the pieces up to the third floor window.”

It’s fun to see your customer breathe a sigh of relief and show their trust in you when you can figure out a way to get the job done for them.

Pat M., Barrett

I agree with Mike about the freedom. When my three kids were young, I coached all three of their hockey teams. That let me spend more time with them then because business got busier in the summer. I’ll admit it wasn’t quite as easy as far as summer family vacations go. But I could take a lot of time in the winter for coaching and winter time vacations.

My kids are grown now. They are 29, 27 and 25. My daughter’s in her last year of nursing school. The boys are both police officers. I’m kind of proud, yeah. I did at least these three things right, I guess. My wife and I have been married 30 years. She’s smart and very understanding, especially about the holidays.

It takes a lot for me to miss Christmas with my family. Last year I left on Christmas day, right after the festivities. And I’ve slid in late on Christmas Eve and barely made it. Christmas is really the only holiday I care about. You just can’t plan your loads around every birthday or anniversary or activity. It’s just not going to happen. But big things like a birth, that’s different. When my wife was pregnant, I took the ninth month off and a couple more weeks after the baby was born. I took a few days off when my grandson was born, too. How could I miss that?

 Tom C., Barrett

Being a van operator sure beats working a lot of other jobs. I’ve done this for so long and I have so much freedom out here. You can pretty much live where you want, in whatever part of the country you want. You can set your own schedule. If you’re hooked to a good agent that’s got a lot of tonnage and some good accounts, you can make a decent profit and a good living.

Hands down, Suddath and United are the best out there. I started with United, and over the years you get to know a lot of people in this business. You meet people who drive for a lot of different agents and different van lines. They’ll talk about how well they’re doing and the grass always looks greener, right? So you might switch and it works out for a while, and then it doesn’t and you end up going back. I’ve been around the whole horn with it and United and Suddath have everyone else beat in this business. When the economy gets tough I can understand why people looking for a mover might look for someone cheaper, but they lose out on service. I think we have the best drivers because the quality drivers gravitated toward United where they’re appreciated more for the extra things they do.

When I hear, “This is the best move we’ve ever had,” I feel good about it. It makes a difference when you can think you’re doing something for them no one else can. One of the big perks of the job is meeting new people all the time. You meet people from all walks of life. You move everyone from retiring mailmen to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to sports stars. I spend a lot of time during inventory talking to my customers and getting to know them a little bit. They get to know me a little bit and I think it puts them at ease. You realize you’re putting everything these people own for the most part on your trailer and I think when they get to know you, you’re not just some mover who works for a carrier, you’re Mike who lives in the Florida panhandle and has two kids. It puts them more at ease when you drive away with everything they own.

Mike J., Suddath

There are so many gorgeous places across the country. The most beautiful part of the country for me is the upper rim of the Grand Canyon, Interstate 8 between Mexico and California.

If I can arrange it, I also like to stop and see the redwoods of northern California. It’s tough to get through there with a big truck but I’ve been up there with a short truck many times. The New England states like Maine and New Hampshire are beautiful, too, even though the roads aren’t made for big trucks. I even like parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota because you get all four seasons. The winters are cold, sure, but the summers are so nice, especially near all those lakes and wooded areas. It’s a lot better than riding where there’s flat nothing, like Nebraska. You look forward and backwards and there’s just nothing there.

In the winter, the stress level goes up 100%. On a coast to coast job, you never know if you’re going to hit a snowstorm in Chicago and of course everyone’s got a schedule to keep. You watch the weather a lot so you can be aware of what’s ahead and reroute moves to avoid severe weather. You could be in Williston, North Dakota and it’s -40 and then in Mesa, Arizona and it’s 110. You learn how to dress and hydrate and stay ahead of the game.

I was with another agency for 17 years prior to coming to Barrett. One of the big differences with Barrett is that I don’t have to fight for my money. With the other agency, man, I fought for every dime. Barrett people are good people to be with and work for.

The secret to being a van operator is flexibility. You can expect one thing and it turns out to be completely different. You might think the load is going here but then it needs to go there. You can’t get bent out of shape just because it’s not what they said it was. Life is short, enjoy it.

Jerry I.,  Barrett